Are Nurses Verbal Junkies?

According to a news story published in the Daily Mail, a new book written by a psychiatrist says that women talk more than men, and that we are verbal junkies. In her book, “The Female Mind,” Dr. Luan Brizendine writes that women talk three times more than men, and that the act of talking floods our brains with chemicals that give us a rush similar to that felt by heroin addicts when they are high.



Look at these nurses standing by the Coke machine. When I first looked at this ad, I thought these ladies were just getting their caffeine fix for the day, but according to the good psychiatrist, they are getting a different kind of fix as well. During my long career as a nurse, I can attest to the fact that nurses love talking to each other about every subject known to mankind. But are we truly junkies? Let’s look at the facts.





People who are addicts share many common characteristics. Addicts are moody and they have huge appetites, especially for sweets. These characteristics are also prevalent among nurses. We crave chocolate, pizza, and Chinese takeout food when we are running our butts off at work, and we get moody when we work double shifts without taking a break. Ask anyone who works with nurses and they will tell you that you are risking your life if you take the last piece of pizza or the last doughnut sitting at the nurses station without permission. And yes, we love to talk. We talk about everything. There is no subject that is off limits, and it’s hard for our male colleagues to get a word in edgewise. Maybe that’s why doctors give phone orders. See the doctor on the book cover? He's getting ready to call in phone orders because he knows that the nurse talking to him can’t talk to anyone else while she’s on the phone. He's a smart doctor.


If nurses are junkies because we like to talk, it’s time to start Talkers Anonymous. Hello, my name is Mother Jones, RN and I’m a blaboholic.